The Weakley FIlm News 6-30-2017

In this week’s “I thought he retired?” story, the Oscar-nominated film Toni Erdmann is getting a U.S. remake already. And it’s going to star Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig. AND Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are in talks to write it.

They are just the latest big names Paramount is working with, which includes producers Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, in this Hollywood take on Maren Ade‘s tender and frequently oddball story about a father who creates an entirely new persona to connect with his workaholic daughter.

I need to see the original. But this is all crazy. And didn’t Jack Nicholson retire? Never say never, I guess, right?

In this week’s “Stop giving me hope” story, director Matt Reeves is finishing up the junket tours for the last film in his Ape triolgy, War for the Planet of the Apes, and while doing so, has managed to make some comments about his next film, The Batman. And it gives me hope.

In an interview with New Trailer Buzz, he did talk about his “point-of-view driven” approach to film making and the emotional parallels that attracted him to both Caesar and Batman.

“One of the reasons I was drawn to [The Batman] is that I had a similar obsession to Batman when I was younger that I had with the Apes series, which I was obsessed with. I see a parallel emotionally between Caesar and Batman, in that they’re both tortured and trying to sort of grapple within themselves to try and do the right thing in a very imperfect and, to some degree, corrupt world. It’s really that emotionality that I’m interested.”

But then he says some promising things about making a Batman film that pays tribute to him being “the world’s greatest detective”, and making a “noir-driven” film.

“In all of my films, what I try to do, in an almost Hitchcockian sense, is use the camera and use the storytelling so that you become that character, and you emphasize with that point of view. There’s a chance to do an almost noir-driven, detective version of Batman that is point-of-view driven in a very, very powerful way, that hopefully is going to connect you to what’s going on inside of his head and inside of his heart.”

*Sounds of me giggling like a little schoolgirl* Hee hee – this makes me pretty excited to see how this film will work out. PLEEEEAASSE be good! The film is still slated for a 2019 release.

In this week’s “The Truth is not cool” story, Gillian Anderson, you know, Scully from X-Files, laments the lack of gender diversity in the writers/directors seats on X-Files.

News broke earlier this week that series creator Chris Carter had assembled a new writers’ room for the next installment of the series, bringing back series veterans Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan and James Wong, and adding series assistants Gabe Rotter, Benjamin Van Allen and Brad Follmer to Season 11.

Anderson noted that the series has hardly fared better for women on the directors’ front.

“And 2 out of 207 eps directed by women,” Anderson tweeted Thursday morning, with a link to a story about the new writers’ room. “I too look forward to the day when the numbers are different.”

Yeah, this shit has got to change.

In this week’s “Power of the people!” story, if you haven’t been keeping up lately, the Netflix show Sense8 has been cancelled. the past week or so the fans have been in an uproar, and have been protesting and petitioning like mad to get Netflix to keep it going for at least another season. Netflix has pretty much like, sorry, but it’s still gone.

Until now. The show announced that it will be filming a 2 hour series finale episode to come out next year.

The news came in the form of a letter from co-creator Lana Wachowski, who helmed the most recent second season of the sci-fi series after sister Lilly Wachowski took a step back. The pair created the show with J. Michael Straczynski.

Netflix shared the letter on its official account, along with a video tribute to the sci-fi series. “After seeing that the cancellation was a total cluster, we decided to give Sense8 fans the ending they totally deserve,” said a Netflix spokesperson.

In her letter, Lana Wachowski confessed that she fell into a “fairly serious” depression after the series was canceled. Netflix handed down the news on June 1, not long after Sense8‘s May 5 season two release.

“The outpouring of love and grief that came in the wake of the news that Sense8 would not be continuing was so intense, that I often found myself unable to open my own email,” she began in the letter. “I had never worked so hard, or put so much of myself into a project as I had with Sense8 and its cancellation hollowed me out.”

“As the characters in our show discover that they are not alone. I too have learned that I am not just a me. I am also a we,” she wrote. “While it is often true that these decisions are irreversible, it is not always true.”

She continued in the note, which was directed to the fans: “Improbably, unforeseeably, your love has brought Sense8 back to life.”

Netflix has said that though they love Sense 8, the viewership just didn’t justify the cost of the show. It all boils down to numbers. Welcome to the entertainment industry’s mantra. Money.

Sense8 follows eight “sensates” who discover they are emotionally and mentally linked, forming a “cluster.” Scattered across the globe, a DJ in Iceland, imprisoned martial arts maven in Seoul, Chicago cop, San Franciscan hacktivist, Nairobi bus driver, Mexico City movie star, Berlin safe-cracker and Hindu pharmacist in Mumbai spent the first season sharing and visiting each other in their minds.

After the Christmas special, the second season dove deeper into the interconnected, universal love story. The season ended with all but one of the sensates, Wolfgang, visiting each other for the first time in person as they set off on their next task to save one of their own.

Well, I for one, am delighted to hear this news. Sense8 is a cool show, and very progressive.

In this week’s “Universe this, Universe that” story, apparently the Broccolis, the producers of the James Bond franchise, have been bitten by the Cinematic Universe bug.

Jeff Sneider of The Tracking Board recently tweeted that the producers have caught “universe fever,” and, while developing the mainline James Bond films, they are open to exploring other avenues and corners of 007’s world.

So, we could see movies of other “00’s”, or origin stories of Bond villains, or who know what. Granted, that would certainly fill the gaps between Bond films, as it takes a few years at least to see a new one. But then, a new James Bond film is an event, and seeing a bunch of spin-off type films in the Bond Universe might diminish that.

I say ‘no’ to this idea. It’s only rumour anyway, so no sense in getting worked up about it…yet.

In this week’s “Unfortunate loss” Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, who starred in the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, along with Noomi Rapace, died on Tuesday following a battle with lung cancer, his representative confirmed. He was 56.

Though best known for his role in the Swedish The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Nyqvist also broke into American film. He played the villain alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and starred as Viggo Tarasov in John Wick with Keanu Reeves.

Nyqvist first garnered international attention as Mikael Blomkvist in “Millennium,” a six-part television series based on Stieg Larsson’s books following Lisbeth Salander. The series aired on Swedish television in six parts, and was expanded on three theatrically released films in 2009: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

This is a bummer.

In this week’s “Let’s do it again!” story, if you remember, there was a question as to whether director Patty Jenkins would be signed on to make a sequel to her Wonder Woman movie. Well, question no more.

Patty Jenkins has indeed signed on to direct the Wonder Woman sequel. She recently said during a Q&A at a Women in Film screening,

“I had an epiphany about Wonder Woman 2. I was like, ‘You don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion that you do Wonder Woman 2.’ But then as I was falling asleep I had an epiphany. I was like, ‘Wait a minute. You have the greatest character of all time that you love dearly, with a cast that you love sitting at the palm of your hand at this day and age — you can do whatever you want with them — are you crazy?’ And then I suddenly realized, it’s not more – it’s another movie. It’s its own movie. And it’s got to be great.”

It seems like she really didn’t necessarily want to make a follow-up to the movie she already made, but then seemed to come to the realization that what is being presented to her is an amazing creative opportunity at which she very much wants to leap.

Seeing as he was one of the best things about the last two X-Men movies, this is great news indeed!

In this week’s “Am I the only one that doesn’t care?” story, the Top Gun sequel, creatively titled, Top Gun: Maverick, will arrive in theaters July 12, 2019.

Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski is circling the sequel to the 1986 hit, which follows fighter pilots as they grapple with drone tech that is making their old style of flying obsolete. Jerry Bruckheimer is returning to produce the sequel, along with Skydance’s David Ellison and Cruise.

Whatever.

In this week’s “Not as long as their someone else’s” story, Emmy nominated Titus Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Tom Everett Scott (La La Land), have signed on to star in John Asher’s comedy I Hate Kids.

Scott plays Nick Pearson, a successful author, who has always hated kids and is about to finally settle down with the perfect match. However, on the night of his rehearsal dinner, 13-year old Mason (newcomer Julian Feder), shows up claiming to be his son. What makes Mason, Nick’s son? Because the self-proclaimed psychic, The Amazing Fabular (Burgess), says so. The trio set out on a journey to find Mason’s mom, and in doing so, learn about Nick’s past.

Frank Dietz and Todd Traina co-wrote the screenplay and Traina and Rachel McHale are producing.

Ok, sounds like it could be funny. I like these two actors a lot, and have been waiting to see Titus Burgess show up in something other than those commercials.

In this week’s “YAY!” story, the ever so amazing and hilarious Rick and Morty return with season 3 on July 30!

The trailer is online now and it’s delightfully bonkers. I love that show.

In this week’s “Leaving easy money” story, actress Michelle Rodriguez says that she’ll leave the Fast and Furious franchise if women don’t get more opportunities.

The actress threatened to leave behind her role as Letty Ortiz, the wife of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, if the series continues to limit its female roles.

“F8 is out digitally today,” she captioned her Instagram photo. “I hope they decide to show some love to the women of the franchise on the next one. Or I just might have to say goodbye to a loved franchise. It’s been a good ride & I’m grateful for the opportunity the fans & studio have provided over the years.”

Rodriguez, who has portrayed Letty in five of the eight installments, has previously pointed out that she’s had limited dialogue along with actress Jordana Brewster, who plays the sister of Dom, and other women who have joined the series.

Now, first of all, I whole-heartedly agree with Rodriguez. I hope her stance gets some attention and makes a difference. But on the other hand – it may be the cynic in me – but I’m afraid the studios are going to take the attitude of, “Ok, go ahead and leave. I’m sure we can find a way to write you out. And gee, where will we EVER find another actress to replace you?”

Just playing devil’s advocate. I don’t think the studio execs care that much. Sad, but true. Hopefully they will prove me wrong.

Ok, thanks for stopping by! See ya’ll next week! Have a great 4th of July!

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Author: Neil Weakley

Hi. I’m Neil. I didn’t go to film school so I don’t really have to justify any of my opinions about why I like a film or not. So there. But I worked in film for a number of years, so I have hands-on experience. That, and I’ve known Chris Mancini for, like, 25 years. It really is all who you know. :)

I’m mostly, but not exclusively, a fan of sci-fi, comic book movies, horror, comedies, and weird independent films. If you’re an average movie-goer and want to know what another average movie-goer thinks without all the “feelm school” gobbley-gook, hop on over to www.comedyfilmnerds.com and look for me, Neil T. Weakley. I won’t steer you wrong. Or follow me on Twitter @wychlea or @FilmNerdNeil.